On Saturday, UN Security Council sanctions were reimposed on Iran under the so-called “snapback” mechanism of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, a step triggered by the UK, France, and Germany.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called the move “unfair, unjust, and illegal” as Tehran argues that the three European countries, known as the E3, didn’t have the right to trigger the sanctions since the US was the party that withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018. Iranians are bracing for the impact the sanctions will have on the Iranian economy, which is already reeling under pre-existing US sanctions.
The E3 took the step to trigger the sanctions before the mechanism to reimpose them expired in October. Russia and China attempted to halt the sanctions, but the efforts failed at the UN Security Council. Russia has slammed the move by the Western countries as “illegal,” signaling Moscow may not follow the sanctions, which include an arms embargo.
The E3 likely triggered the sanctions on behalf of the US, which welcomed the news on Saturday. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the reactivation of the sanctions was “an act of decisive global leadership on the part of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.”
The E3 refused to delay the sanctions despite Iran signing a deal to restart cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which had been suspended in the wake of the 12-day US-Israeli war on Iran due to the IAEA’s role in providing a pretext for the attacks and refusing to condemn the bombing of nuclear facilities. Iran also suspects that Israel obtained the names of the nuclear scientists it killed from the IAEA.
The E3 was also demanding that Iran restart nuclear negotiations with the US. Iranian officials had said they needed assurances that their country wouldn’t be attacked again since previous talks were used as a cover to launch a war. Tehran also made clear that talks wouldn’t go anywhere if the US continued to demand that it eliminate its nuclear enrichment program.
Pezeshkian said on Saturday that the US was also demanding that Iran hand over its stockpile of enriched uranium in exchange for temporary sanctions relief, which he called “unacceptable.” The Iranian leader also said that Tehran didn’t plan to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in response to the snapback sanctions, although Iran is vowing to respond in some manner.
Other Iranian officials have previously said that Tehran may leave the NPT as a response to snapback sanctions, a step that the US and Israel a step that could be used by Israel and the US as a pretext to launch another war, even though Israel is not a signatory to the NPT and has a secret nuclear stockpile and weapons program.
During his address to the UN General Assembly last week, Pezeshkian reiterated that Tehran doesn’t seek nuclear weapons. “I hereby declare once before this assembly that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb,” he said. “We do not seek nuclear weapons. This is our belief based on the edict issued by the supreme leader and religious authorities.”
